My 1998 Compaq monitor finally gave up the ghost last week

I had an old Compaq S700 CRT monitor running in my basement shop for years. Used it to run a DOS-based estimating program I still rely on for quick bids. Last Tuesday I turned it on and the picture went to a thin white line, then nothing. Opened it up to see if it was just a loose solder joint, but I could smell burnt electronics right away. Anyone else still holding onto old CRT monitors for specific tasks?

2 comments

2 Comments

lisa83927d ago

The S700 was actually a later model, I had the P70 from 1996 that finally died in 2019. The flyback transformer went on mine, same burnt smell you described. I found a local repair guy who salvaged parts from an old Gateway monitor to fix it, cost me about $50. Those old Sonys had better color accuracy than most modern LCDs for specific applications.

kim.sandra27d ago

Damn, that's a solid find. So the guy used parts from a Gateway monitor - was that a specific model or just whatever he had lying around? I'm curious if the flyback transformer is interchangeable between brands like that, or if it's more of a crapshoot with the pinouts and voltages. Seems like you'd have to be pretty careful with it or risk blowing something else up.